1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a steering column device with a knee airbag device that includes a knee airbag that is inflated and deployed to restrain knees of an occupant when a collision occurs, and when it is predicted that a collision will occur.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various knee airbag devices have been proposed to protect the knees of an occupant. For example, each of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-104317 (JP-A-9-104317) and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-123862 (JP-A-9-123862) describes a knee airbag device that includes an airbag module disposed inside a column cover for a steering column.
However, in the above-described technology, in the case where the airbag module overlaps the outline of an instrument panel in a lateral view when the knee airbag device is provided in a vehicle, it is not possible to form an airbag door that extends in the lower surface and side surfaces of the column cover so that the airbag door is widely opened. Also, in the case where the outline of the instrument panel is greatly curved toward a console box in a plan view so that the occupant easily gets in and out of the vehicle, and the airbag module overlaps the outline of the instrument panel in the plan view when the knee airbag device is provided in the vehicle, the outline of the instrument panel in an inner area of the vehicle overlaps the airbag module by a large amount. Therefore, it is more difficult to widely open the airbag door. Further, the same problem occurs also in the case where a steering wheel is placed at a front position in the direction of the axis of a steering column in the steering column device provided with a telescopic mechanism.